Harmonization and standardization of risk management of underground ventilation in Australia
- Authors: Tuck, Michael , Pillay, Manikam
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 14 U.S./North American Mine ventilation symposium p. 31-38
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- Description: In Australia, all states and territories in Australia have maintained their own and separate set of laws for regulating health and safety. The difference has been more pronounced in the mining sector. The main reason for maintaining these separate regimes in mining has been based on an old-age argument that the hazards, culture and circumstances of the mining industry are somewhat different to those existent in other industries. As a result there are at least three different structures of the health and safety law in Australia. In recent years, however, there has been push by industry and government to drive some consistency and harmonization in regulating health and safety. To address this disparity the Federal Government has, in consultation with the states and territories, developed and issued the Model Work Health and Safety Act (WHSA) and the Model Work Health and Safety Regulations (WHSR) which is expected to become a uniform set of health and safety laws for the country. For the mining sector, a draft set of Regulations and Codes of Practice aimed at harmonizing health and safety has been issued. It is expected this will provide the country’s first ever set of standards and benchmarks for the mining sector. This paper compares and contrasts the existing and the proposed set of laws in the three states of Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. It concludes with a discussion on what the proposed laws mean for managing risks associated with ventilation in underground mining
Safety management of small-sized chemical waste treatement facilities in Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Pillay, Manikam
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Management Vol. 2, no. 5 (2012), p. 221-231
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- Description: With the increased use of chemicals in industry, facilities for treating chemical wastes are becoming an important part of the modern society. In Australia, chemical waste treatment facilities are largely small – sized businesses, employing less than twenty people. Because of their small size these facilities have generally escaped the attention of regulators, researchers and policy advisors. This is a significant concern because many of these facilities may continue to operate with substandard safety practices and, if left unchecked, these facilities are prime candidates for organizational disasters and major accidents.This paper discusses the findings of a pilot study investigation undertaken to assess safety management practices across a sample of small-sized chemical waste treatment facilities in the state of Victoria, Australia. Results of this study provide useful information to waste, environment and health and safety advocacy groups, researchers, employees and employers interested in prevention of chemical related incidents, and to government agencies involved in the regulatory administration of safety.
Safety culture and resilience engineering exploring theory and application in improving gold mining safety
- Authors: Pillay, Manikam , Borys, David , Else, Dennis , Tuck, Michael
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Gravity gold 2010 'Optimising recovery' p. 129-140
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- Description: Contemporary approaches to safety management appear to be failing short of meeting its mark in improving mine safety. This is evidenced by the high workers compensation, high incidence rates and fatalties. Evidence from high-risk and complex organisations points towards safety culture as being important in improving site safety. In more recent years resilience engineering has been touted as a new and innovative way of managing safety. This paper reviews and synthesises previous literature on safety culture and resilience engineering. It then highlights methods that can be used to measure safety culture and resilience engineering, and explores similarities and differences between complex organisation and gold mining to identify opportunities for more innovative approaches to improving safety in gold mining operations through safety culture and reslience engineering.
Exploring resilience engineering through the presciption and practice of Safe Work Method Statements in the Victorian Construction Industry
- Authors: Pillay, Manikam
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: This study investigated whether safe work method statements (SWMS) enhance or hinder resilience engineering (RE) as a health and safety management strategy in the Victorian construction industry. It is an important study because SWMS have been legislated by the federal and state governments as a fundamental risk control strategy for high-risk construction work; yet there is little empirical evidence to support this policy decision. Research on safety rules and procedures (to which SWMS can be associated) suggests they are not followed to the letter but adapted to suit context, and this adaptation is an important aspect of RE, a recent innovation in health and safety management.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Are we there yet? Reforms, harmonisation, risk assessment and mine safety management in Australia
- Authors: Tuck, Michael , Pillay, Manikam
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 35th International Conference of Safety in Mines Research Institutes p. 335-344
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Permit-to-work systems as a health and safety risk control strategy in mining : A prospective study in resilience engineering
- Authors: Pillay, Manikam , Tuck, Michael
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Conference paper
- Relation: AHFE 2017 International Conference on Human Error, Reliability, Resilience, and Performance, 2017 : Advances in Human Error, Reliability, Resilience, and Performance; Los Angeles, USA; 17th-21st July 2017; published in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing Vol. 589, p. 145-154
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- Description: Mining is an important contributor to the social and economic fabric of our society. However, it is also considered to be one of the most dangerous industries. Compared to manufacturing, mining is generally regarded as a more complex industry to work in, creating additional challenges for policy makers, researchers and practitioners. This paper first discusses the state of mining health and safety in Australia, followed by an examination of some of the complexities that characterizes the industry. Next one contemporary approach, permit-to-work systems (PTW), is introduced, followed by a review of the literature relating to its use as a health and safety risk control strategy. This is followed by a discussion of Resilience engineering (RE) as an innovation in health and safety management, and a case made for investigating RE as a safety management strategy using PTW systems. The paper concludes by suggesting a pragmatism research framework and two organizational theories upon which such research can be advanced. © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of United Kingdom 2018.
Investigating collective mindfulness in mining: A Prospective study in high-reliability organizations
- Authors: Pillay, Manikam , Tuck, Michael , Klockner, Karen
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Advances in Human Error, Reliability, Resilience, and Performance Chapter 1 p. 3-12
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- Description: Mining is an important contributor to the social and economic fabric of our society. However, it continues to be regarded as one of the most dangerous industries. Compared to manufacturing, mining is more complex, which can pose additional challenges for mining and safety managers in terms of achieving sustainable safety outcomes. More advanced approaches are required. This paper first discusses the state of mining safety in Australia, followed by an examination of some of the complexities that characterizes the industry. It then introduces High-reliability organizations and Collective mindfulness as an advanced organizational safety management strategy that can be used to achieve sustainable safety improvement. A pragmatist research framework and two organizational theories follow this, which can be used to inform further research in these fields. The paper concludes with a research proposition which can be used to empirically investigate these concepts in mining organizations.